Freddie at L’Hôte describes a process I went through about fifteen years ago. It’s a result of experiencing qualitatively better things to which you once were quality-insensitive. Suddenly, you go back to something to which you used to be more quantity-sensitive — beer in this case, but it could be wine or booze, or maybe some kind of food, or maybe a car — and you find that your minimum quality threshold has risen above a point that what you used to enjoy is no longer good.
In this case, Freddie has discovered, as a lot of us have, that once you get a taste for Samuel Adams, Pete’s Wicked, Sierra Nevada, and the like, it’s very difficult to go back to something like Bud Light or MGD, much less a low-end product like Keystone or Mickey’s Big Mouth.
Bad money may drive out good, but good product drives out bad.
Sierra Nevada is my default beer of choice, Sam Adams as back-up, and the occasional artisanal or Belgian when available. Some Italian beer was okay — Peroni reserve — but mostly in Italy I was drinking Beck’s. Still prefer SN. Hey, what do you know: I’m drinking one right now!